'Titane' Review: A Tear Of Petrol Is In The Eye Of French Filmmaker Julia Ducournau Whose Sophomore Release Is A Fossil-Fueled Frightmare

Arlington TX

03 October, 2021

1:23 PM

Description

By Joe Friar, Fort Worth Report October 3, 2021 Four years after making her debut with the cannibal shocker "Raw" writer-director Julia Ducournau returns with the fossil-fueled frightmare "Titane" that once again follows in the footsteps of auteur David Cronenberg, even more so, as the body horror film and Palme d'Or winner features several scenes that dare you to keep watching. I interviewed Ducournau in 2017 and we spoke about her parents being doctors which led to her fascination with the human body, "What I love about bodies is that they can be frightening when they transform from a disease, they are a constant reminder of our mortality." Speaking with a heavy French accent, she added "The way a body works has always been strange and fascinating to me." It's easy to recognize "Titane" as an evolution in Ducournau's filmmaking based on her own psyche. The film begins with a prologue, a quick flash of "Hereditary" as frigidity 7-year-old Alexia (Adèle Guigue), seated in the car's backseat, seems to be doing everything she can to distract her father until he crashes the car. After undergoing Titanium (Titane in French) cranioplasty, Alexia emerges from the hospital with a newfound affection for automobiles, hugging her father's car once they are reunited. Fast forward, Alexia (Agathe Rousselle), now in her 20s, works as an exotic dancer, her androgynous look appealing to both men and women. She twerks on top of a pimped-out Cadillac in a hybrid car show-strip club, slithering over the restored ride like Tawny Kitaen in a Whitesnake video, the audience unaware they are witnessing an act of foreplay. To read the full article, click here. Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.